Have you got a minute?
by Matalvis
Summary: What if Shepard "really" needs to talk? Sadly, Garrus will find out. Inspired by some fan art I saw.


**I am so sorry for the wait for the next chapter of The Wildcard. would not believe what i have got to deal with. One bieng a Damn virus on my comp. don't worry. it is gone now and the next chapter of The WildCard will be uploaded in the nere future. **

**Until then here is a one shot i was inspired to write by a piece of fanart i saw way back. Hope you like it. again sorry for the long wait. Just hang in there a little longer.**

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><p><strong>Have You Got A Minute?<strong>

John Shepard let out a yawn as the elevator doors opened to the crew deck. There hadn't been much going on lately. It had been a week since they went through the Omega 4 Relay.

They were now heading for the Citadel for supplies, and the trip would take three days, depending on how long it would take them to get to each relay. To sate his boredom he played with his space hamster. That simply got old vary fast however, what with the small mammal taking a shit whenever it would get excited.

He had forgotten to feed his fish two days ago, so watching them swim around was out. God how he missed Flippy, Zippy, Pinky, Bluey, Jaws, Joker Jr., Dr. Fin, Gilly, Smelly, Dopy, Generic goldfish 1 through 4, and of course Mr. Gill. He loved Gill the most. It was hard for him to cope with their loss, and he hoped they were all happy in fish heaven. He spent the next day drinking his sorrows away at the bar Kasumi had snuck onto the ship, and after a while a drunken Kasumi joined him (He wouldn't leave the room so the thief thought she could out wait him and got herself a glass.) as he reminisced about the good old days like when he first got them.

Hours later both he and Kasumi were in tears, John sitting at the bar with the woman in the seat next to him rubbing his back in an attempt to comfort her drinking buddy.

In their memory he put them all in a casket (Since no one died on the Collector base, he felt like he should put them to use.) and launched them towards the nearest sun.

When Miranda accused him of miss using the Normandy's resources just so his fish could have a proper funeral he snapped and called her every name he could think of in his alcohol induced state. Most of them wouldn't translate on someone's Omni-tool out of both varieties in languages and for the sake of common decency. He had no idea where he learned those words from but at some point Thane, who was eating in the mess hall and within earshot, went deathly pale and pushed his tray to the side before making a mad dash for the men's room as his hand was covering his mouth.

Ever since then Thane started putting a little space between them.

John brushed away a tear that started to run down his scarred face. He needed to talk to someone or else he would spend the rest of the trip either in his cabin, or drinking.

He stepped onto the crew deck and took note of the crew giving him space once they looked into his eerily glowing red eyes. Maybe he forgot to shave?

Once he got to the batteries he opened the door to see his old friend Garrus working on his terminal.

The turian turned to him when he heard the doors open and gave, what Shepard assumed was, a smile.

"Shepard." he greeted as he faced him. "Need me for something?"

John smiled. Finally he had someone to talk to. Anything to get his mind off of his fishy loved ones. He returned the smile as he crossed his arms.

"Have you got a minute?" he asked the turian.

Of course he would have a minute. If he had nothing to do, then neither did the turian. Not like the former C-Sec had a schedule. What would it say anyway? 7AM Eat breakfast. 12PM Ask Shepard to help kill an old friend of his who betrayed his squad. 1PM Kill said friend. 5PM Grab a case of Dextro-Beer and kick back.

He was looking forward to having this friendly conversa…

"Can it wait for a bit?" Garrus asked, making John's eyes go wide.

He needed to have this conversation. If he was alone he would be condemned to listen to the screams of his fish asking why he didn't feed them, why he killed them. So Shepard did what he always did when he didn't like what he was hearing. He imagined there was a renegade star symbol popping up to his right with a little R on it. "I'm in the middle of some…" That's as far as the turian got when a human fist collided into the right side of his face, sending him to the ground on his ass while holding the throbbing turian equivalent of a cheek and hissing in pain. "What the Hell was…"

His words went silent when he looked into the glowing blood red eyes looking at him angrily making the brow scrunch up. John's nostrils were flaring as he gritted his teeth.

His eyes seemed to glow redder when he suddenly reached down and grabbed Garrus by the breast plate and lifted him off of the ground as he fixed the turian with a savagely angered glare while his face was mere inches away.

"We are going to have a friendly conversation, and you are GOING TO LIKE IT!" John yelled into the alien's face as he struggled with the impulse to punch him again.

Garrus visibly shook in terror as he looked at the enraged human Spectre.

"W-what do you… want to talk about…?" he barely managed to stammer out before he was pulled closer.

"WHAT DID YOUR FATHER THINK OF YOU DROPPING OUT OF SPECTRE TRAINING!" John shouted loudly, making the turian's eardrums momentarily stop working.

But thank the spirits he heard the question. "D… disappointed…"

With that answer, Garrus was dropped on the floor as John turned on his heel and started walking out the door with a satisfied smile on his face.

"I'm happy we had this talk, Garrus." he said happily as he waved a hand over his shoulder. "If you need me, I'm going to go down to Engineering to talk to Tali. See you around, Garrus."

Garrus fought to stop his heart from bursting out of his chest as he tried to control his breathing. Finally that nightmare was over. He didn't know why the human snapped like that. He normally did calibrations.

He shakily grabbed on to his terminal and pulled himself up to his feet. It was then that he realized what Shepard had said.

As fast as he could, he activated his Omni-tool and called one of his friends on the ship.

"Come on. Pick up. Pick up."

"Oh. Hi Garrus." Tali's voice said over the line. "Need something."

Garrus's grip tightened on the terminal as he let out a sigh. He wasn't too late.

"Shepard's coming down to talk to you!" he warned as his voice was full of worry.

"Really?" she asked, clearly not catching the urgency in his voice. "Oh. I see him now." Garrus's eyes widened in terror at those words. "I'll have to call you back. I have work to do and he looks like he needs something."

"No! Tali, don't hang up! Whatever you do don't…" he didn't get that far before Tali dropped the line. Garrus started shacking again as he slumped down to the floor "Spirits help her…"

"Hmm. Wander what that was about." Tali said to herself before turning to Shepard who had a smile on his face that made her smile instinctively. Not that he could see it though. Those red eyes made chills run down her spine however. "Shepard! What can I do for you?"

"Hi, Tali. Have you got a minute?"


End file.
